"As Anthony Graves said himself, nothing has come easy in his effort to obtain justice.
After spending 18 years on Texas’s Death Row for a murder he did not commit, Graves was finally freed on October 27, 2010. But his attempt to receive compensation for spending most of his adult life behind bars is being thwarted by the state Comptroller’s Office, which insists the 45-year-old African-American does not deserve $1.4 million because the court document overturning his conviction does not contain the words “actual innocence.” "
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07:53 PM
PFF
System Bot
NEPTUNE Member
Posts: 10199 From: Ticlaw FL, and some other places. Registered: Aug 2001
Well, He did receive free housing, food, and health care for the last 18 years.......As far as him being entitled to anything. I think not. He is free, now he is wanting to go after the state because someone lied? I would think going after the family who put him there would be his best bet. He should just put the whole thing behind him and move on. Doubtful though. I mean 1.4 million dollars. Shoot for something realistic dude. Like 10k to get a car, some new clothes and a couple months rent and gain employment and use the new freedom.
I'm sure if you were in his position you would be singing a totally different tune. You cant put a value of how he might have succeeded in life if this had not happened to him. He deserves ten times that much, and should get a free bitchslap in on the prosecutor and judge who were in charge of his case.
Who knows what kind of crap he had to suffer in prison at the hands of the other inmates... and by the way, 1.4 million over 18 years is $77k a year... hardly an unreasonable or rich sum.
[This message has been edited by tbone42 (edited 02-16-2011).]
I think this is the same guy that was on 60 minutes or one of those shows like that. Crying shame. If anybody deserves to get paid, this guy does. Antuzzi, lets stick you in prison for 18 years, and see if you feel the same way afterwards. Care for some tossed salad?
Well, He did receive free housing, food, and health care for the last 18 years.......As far as him being entitled to anything. I think not. He is free, now he is wanting to go after the state because someone lied? I would think going after the family who put him there would be his best bet. He should just put the whole thing behind him and move on. Doubtful though. I mean 1.4 million dollars. Shoot for something realistic dude. Like 10k to get a car, some new clothes and a couple months rent and gain employment and use the new freedom.
Lie or not, its up to the state to provide a fair and accurate trial.
And like another post, room and board for 18 years in means nothing. The man effectively lost his life for that period of time since he lost his job and career, belongings, friends, perhaps family. And he will never be able to recover fully. You cant just 'put it behind you' after 18 years. Sure, a weekday in the joint you could shrug and move on, but not a quarter of your life lost...
Oh, and the people that lied, should be sued and put in jail too.
Originally posted by maryjane: After spending 18 years on Texas’s Death Row for a murder he did not commit, Graves was finally freed on October 27, 2010.
Thankfully he wasn't murdered. ( yes, murder at the hands of those who lied in court, since he was innocent i wouldn't call it an execution )
I'm sure if you were in his position you would be singing a totally different tune. You cant put a value of how he might have succeeded in life if this had not happened to him. He deserves ten times that much, and should get a free bitchslap in on the prosecutor and judge who were in charge of his case.
Who knows what kind of crap he had to suffer in prison at the hands of the other inmates... and by the way, 1.4 million over 18 years is $77k a year... hardly an unreasonable or rich sum.
It will take him longer to recover, if he ever can. He now has zero marketable skills, no job history.. No 'networking'. More then likely no social skills as you forget how to live a normal life after a while.
It will take him longer to recover, if he ever can. He now has zero marketable skills, no job history.. No 'networking'. More then likely no social skills as you forget how to live a normal life after a while.
Thats right, and lets not forget the asswipes who will probably still hold it against him and not hire him regardless of what the outcome of his non-guilt was. Some people just enjoy keeping others down... his terrible journey is not even done yet.
Cases like this is precisely why I am against the Death Penalty.. one mistake is too many, one innocent life killed in error is too much. It took 18 years for them to sort this out.. some have been killed and exhonerated after death.. thats messed up.
[This message has been edited by tbone42 (edited 02-16-2011).]
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08:16 PM
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
I say pay him the money go after these guys. " prosecutors had convinced two witnesses to make false statements and had withheld two statements that could have changed the minds of jurors."
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08:18 PM
87antuzzi Member
Posts: 11151 From: Surrounded by corn. Registered: Feb 2009
What life. He had 5 kids. one at 15!. Got picked up for dealing drugs and lived with his mother at the time of arrest. Real winner here. He was a common thug when he got popped. How many thugs do you know that changed for the better? I say pay the 1.4 then slap him with the child support from 5 different children from 5 different mothers.
Says this guy
Brad
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08:45 PM
Cheever3000 Member
Posts: 12398 From: The Man from Tallahassee Registered: Aug 2001
How many thugs do you know that changed for the better?
>1, and how do we KNOW how he would have turned out? He never got a chance to prove himself. And having a child at 15 only means you made a poor choice. I know several people how have done that at an early age and too responsibility for their actions.
Sure he might have turned out to be total scum too, but he was robbed of any chance to do anything about his life.
I understand many of the comments on here, including Antuzzi's. 1. I should imagine most of us are judging this from the point of view of somebody who HASN'T been in this position, and find it abhorrent. If WE had been in the same position, we would demand the maximum restitution. However, the subject of this story has a history, apparently, of being 'no good', and that is probably WHY he was consideredto be a suspect in the first place.That same history probably put him in the firing line to be subjected to his incarceration. 2. The fact that the terms of his release did NOT clear him and make him innocent of all crimes points to an administative mistake in the original charge/court proceedings, not because he was wrongly accused. Inevitably, when somebody of his background comes into a LOT of money, it will be all gone within a year. And THEN he will revert back to crime, or be on benefits for the rest of his life, and continueing a life of crime. Cynical? Yep. The people and the World nowadays makes me that way The comment about $77,000 a year misses the whole point, IMHO. That $77.000 pa is purely and simply 'pocket money'.. It doesn't take into account cost of living expenses he would have had to pay for those 18 years. Deduct the average annual Cost Of Living from the sum, and then deduct the amount of child support etc. he should have payed during that time.Set up some kind of trust fund with that amount and pay his dependants a yearly 'pension' from it. As to him? Well, if we are to be fair, instead of giving him a vast sum of money to squander, how about investing the capital sum, and paying him an income from it? That way, the capital sum isn't thrown away, and he gets support for life from it. The income from $1.5 million is more thatn enough to sustain him, even if he never worked again. And if he DID work too, he wouls still keep the income each year.And 'We' get the capital sum BACK after he dies. He would be fairly compensated for his incarceration, for the rest of his life. A better life than MOST enjoy when they behave decently. Nick
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07:20 AM
82-T/A [At Work] Member
Posts: 22968 From: Florida USA Registered: Aug 2002
I know I'm being lazy and haven't read the entire back-story, but I guess I want to know why the guy wasn't found to be "actually innocent."
Was he still involved in the crime in one way or another, becuase that would explain why he isn't being given compensation.
If he was just some poor Joe walking down the street that got picked up and tried and convicted of it, then he certainly damn well does deserve it... he's missed out on pretty much the main portion of his life... having children, raising them, marrying young, etc...
Again, I cannot understand why they put African in there... if he was ****ing African, then he would be tried in Africa, would he not?
He's but one of many exonerations from Texas's death row and from life sentences, usually for rape.
In Graves' case, it appears to be a word game. DA issues order not compliant with exoneration compensation law requirements, Governor "pledges" to help but likely is powerless because "the law is the law", end result is nothing or less for Graves. Texas prosecutor system has a long history of refusing to acknowledge or accept responsibility for mistakes. Even after incontrovertible proof many prosecutors will maintain belief of guilt and will stonewall/obstruct any attempt to reverse that. It appears to be denial.
District Attorney William Parham said he was “somewhat surprised” by the Texas Comptroller’s denial of Anthony Graves’ request that he be paid for the more than 18 years he spent behind bars.
“I’m really kind of surprised that they turned it down,” Parham said Tuesday. “I guess now it’s up to his lawyers.”
Graves’ attorneys were told last week by the comptroller’s office that his request had been denied because the words “actual innocence” weren’t on a court order freeing him from jail.
Graves’ attorneys asked that the release order be amended to include that phrase, but Parham declined that request.
Parham said Tuesday that he felt his involvement in the case ended with Graves’ release.
“I did my part and dismissed the case. After that, my job’s done,” he said.
I cried when I first read about this. I can't even imagine the terror he felt as he died.
By the time of the execution I'm sure it was more anger and despair then actual fear. Being in prison long enough burns certain parts out of you.
quote
Originally posted by JazzMan:
Welcome to Texas...
Mistakes happen everywhere, its how we deal with them is what makes us good or bad.
Unfortunately i know too well about mistakes that can happen. Some 20 years ago I spent some time in jail ( and a court appearance ) for something i didn't commit, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even tho justice did prevail and the case was tossed out when court finally came around it is still on my record as an arrest, and has to be explained anytime i get a new job, or clearance. It will haunt me forever due to NO fault of my own. And while i don't pretend to understand how he feels, i can at least understand the concept of sitting there wondering what the hell is going on.
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12:28 PM
Blacktree Member
Posts: 20770 From: Central Florida Registered: Dec 2001
If Mr Graves was in fact wrongly accused, then he's getting a really raw deal. If the guy is innocent, the least you can do is exonerate him. And since the legal system ruined his life, I believe they should help him rebuild it. This doesn't need to involve large sums of money or resources. A letter of exoneration, plus some job training or schooling, and maybe some unemployment income until he finds work, would be a good start.
I also think he should be able to file charges and/or a lawsuit against those who wrongly accused him.
If Mr Graves was in fact wrongly accused, then he's getting a really raw deal. If the guy is innocent, the least you can do is exonerate him. And since the legal system ruined his life, I believe they should help him rebuild it. This doesn't need to involve large sums of money or resources. A letter of exoneration, plus some job training or schooling, and maybe some unemployment income until he finds work, would be a good start.
I also think he should be able to file charges and/or a lawsuit against those who wrongly accused him.
Exoneration is a very rare thing... its a way that judges cover their butts. The same as some people get "not guilty" and thats not the same thing as innocent.. it just means guilt cant be proved, or the court figures they dont have to go to that extreme because hey, hes not guilty, what else does he want?
As far as his accusers, they should be flogged in a public square at the least.
[This message has been edited by tbone42 (edited 02-17-2011).]
Originally posted by User00013170: By the time of the execution I'm sure it was more anger and despair then actual fear. Being in prison long enough burns certain parts out of you.
He wasn't executed. He had asthma. Prison officials put him in an environment almost certainly guaranteed to trigger what turned out to be fatal asthma attacks.
I was reading this story (the second link I posted earlier) to pick out salient points, like the fact that the real rapist confessed in 1995 while Cole was still alive, but like other evidence proving his innocence it was ignored by the Lubbock DA, but there were just too many things in this article. So, with apologies aforehand, I post the entire thing, with bolding by me to show the aspects I found most troubling.
Weeping on the witness stand Feb. 5, Ruby Session said she remembers the last time she held her son. It was 1986, and she was sitting on a floor with her 26-year-old son, Timothy Cole, rocking him in her arms, as he wondered aloud how it could be that he had just been convicted of the rape of Michelle Mallin – a rape he did not commit. Indeed, DNA testing conducted last year proved that Lubbock Co. police got the wrong man. The real culprit, Jerry Wayne Johnson, is already in prison, serving life for two other rapes. The revelation came too late to free Cole, however, who died in prison in 1999. But on Friday afternoon, Travis Co. District Judge Charlie Baird formally exonerated Cole – setting free, at least, his name and reputation. According to the Innocence Project of Texas, it is the first posthumous exoneration in Texas history. "I find that Timothy Cole's reputation was wrongly injured, that his reputation must be restored, and that his good name must be vindicated," Baird said. "I find that Timothy Cole shall be and is hereby exonerated."
The unusual court session came after the Lubbock courts rejected, without explanation, the Innocence Project's request for a court of inquiry into the case there, said Jeff Blackburn, the project's chief counsel. The law says that courts must be open to all Texans and that such post-conviction proceedings can be filed in any court, so Blackburn brought the case to Austin. "In Texas, when a county won't fix a problem, what do you do?" he asked in October, when the request for a hearing was first filed. "You go to the capital."
Cole was convicted of the 1985 rape, one of five similar rapes committed over a four-month period near the campus of Texas Tech University. Although Mallin gave detailed information regarding her attacker – importantly, that he was a chain smoker who'd used her car lighter without wearing gloves and had left a cigarette butt that she had not touched, that he was wearing a yellow terry-cloth shirt, and had taken from her a small diamond ring her mother had given to her – the police instead quickly focused on Cole, a Texas Tech student living with his brother Reggie Kennard in a garage-style apartment. Kennard told the court last Thursday that police came to the apartment for the first time after Cole reported that he had been the victim of a robbery a few nights before. Inexplicably, the cops brought a Polaroid camera and snapped shots of Cole that Kennard remembers them saying would be helpful as they searched for the robber. Before long, however, one of those photos was used in a poorly constructed photo lineup, from which Mallin identified Cole – the only color photo in the bunch and the only non-mug shot among six photos – as the person she thought had abducted her from a parking lot across the street from her dorm, held her at knifepoint, and raped her.
Kennard and friends provided Cole a perfect alibi – he was home studying the night Mallin was raped – but in court, Kennard said, the prosecutor made him sound like a thug who would do anything to get his brother off. Prosecutors had even offered Cole probation if he'd just plead guilty, but Cole refused: He would not confess to something he did not do, said his mother. He told her later that he "would rather spend his life in prison as a convicted rapist than to live on the outside as a registered sex offender," she said. "And I was proud of him." In the end, Cole was given 25 years in prison, which for him would become a death sentence. He died in prison from complications with asthma exacerbated by prison officials' insistence that he work outside in the cotton fields. (Who said cotton-picking slaves were ancient history?)
It is unlikely that Cole's name would have been cleared had the real rapist, Jerry Wayne Johnson, not come forward. In fact, Johnson first wrote to Lubbock Co. officials in 1995, just after the statute of limitations had run out. His letter to Judge Jim Bob Darnell, who in 1986 was an assistant district attorney who prosecuted Cole, was ignored. It wasn't until 2007, when Johnson again began writing letters, this time to Lubbock's daily paper and to Blackburn at the Innocence Project, that an investigation into the case began. Among the "serious flaws" that Blackburn said they found were those of the eyewitness identification procedures that led Mallin to finger the wrong man as a suspect.
Blackburn was joined in Baird's court last week by Barry Scheck, Cardozo School of Law-based Innocence Project co-director; they also led a round of lobbying at the Capitol on Feb. 6, calling for reforms to eyewitness ID procedures. (For more on this, see "APD Scores Low on Police Lineup Procedures," Nov. 28, 2008.)
Unheeding, Lubbock police also apparently ignored – or destroyed – other evidence that would have steered them away from Cole. Cole was an asthmatic and the actual rapist a chain smoker, for example, and, notably, police secured a fingerprint from the cigarette lighter in Mallin's car, but then destroyed it. Mallin, who joined with Cole's family to ask that he be exonerated of her rape, testified in court Thursday. She said she was stunned when she first heard that Cole had asthma: "I told [the police] he smoked," she said. "I never dreamed they'd come up with an asthmatic."
Ultimately, DNA proved definitively that Cole did not rape Mallin. Had Judge Darnell paid attention to the letter he received from Johnson in 1995, says Blackburn, it is likely that Cole would still be alive. Apparently that didn't impress Lubbock officials: Mallin testified that when she got the news about the DNA match, in May 2008, a member of the D.A.'s office told her not to worry about the fact that Cole was dead. "I was feeling really guilty and crying on the phone," she said. "He said: 'Oh, Michelle, it's OK. He had asthma; he was going to die anyway.'"(She's just as much a victim of the Lubbock DA as Cole was)
Neither Lubbock police nor members of the county D.A. office participated in the proceedings in Baird's court. District Attorney Matt Powell told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that's because he doesn't think the proceeding was legal, because there is nothing legally explicit about posthumous exonerations. He said he'd be willing to lobby for a law that would define such a procedure but wouldn't come to Austin to participate.
Whatever the feelings of Lubbock Co. officials, Baird on Friday exonerated Cole and expunged his record. Cole's family is now looking forward. They told the Avalanche-Journal they hope Gov. Rick Perry will issue a formal pardon, and they plan to lobby for changes to eyewitness ID procedures. "I'm looking forward to the future," Session told the daily. "I don't know where this road will lead."
One thing for certain: This is not an isolated case. This could just as easily been anyone's brother, father, son. College student one day, falsely convicted body in a morgue another day. Just how bad do the officers of the court have to be to get any kind of punishment?
[This message has been edited by JazzMan (edited 02-17-2011).]
Exoneration is a very rare thing... its a way that judges cover their butts. The same as some people get "not guilty" and thats not the same thing as innocent.. it just means guilt cant be proved, or the court figures they dont have to go to that extreme because hey, hes not guilty, what else does he want?
As far as his accusers, they should be flogged in a public square at the least.
It's not always the accusers. In fact, it's frequently the police and prosecutors who perform sloppy work, or as is fairly common, deliberately hide exculpatory evidence and falsify information to support the prosecution and conviction. Look at Dallas, Texas for example, 21 exonerations since 2001. That's more that most other whole states. http://www.harpers.org/arch...2011/01/hbc-90007895 Texas has 41 exonerations in the last 9 years.
